Hit a pothole a couple of weeks ago. Shortly after that, DSC and low tire pressure lights came. Not sure if they are related or not. Ihit the pot hole hard enough that I took it to the shop to get the alignment checked. Passenger side lower ball joint and outer tie rod end were loose and they couldn't do the alignment. I just wrapped up replacing the axle, tie-rod and lower ball joint this afternoon. Time to figure out what is happening wrt the DSC and low tire pressure light. I have checked the air pressure in the tires and they are all ~35psi. I have a older Creator C110 scanner so I hooked it up and got 5 error messages

5E1F - Vehicle Identification number different
5E43 - Steering angle sensor internal
5E19 - CAN data fault from DME/DDE (DSC lamp will stay on as long as error is present)
5E5C - Initialized Run Flat indicator - see owner handbook
5E40 - Steering angle implausible

Is this related to hitting the pot hole? Any idea what I need to do to fix?
Ian

 

Definitely related to hitting the pothole. Did you try resetting the Tire Pressure Monitoring System?

 

I have tried reseting the tire pressure but it doesn't want to reset. Tried clearing the codes with my code reader but no luck
Even found some links on the web to reseting the DSC the pulling DSC fuse but that did not work either.
I am sure the alignment is still off but it should be close.

 

I had this problem with my 2002 R53. Resetting the TPMS worked to turn off the DSC + TPMS lights for a while, but eventually the steering angle sensor had to be replaced. Luckily my car was still under warranty.

 

From other posts, I think this is n expensieve sensor. JUst curious, how does hitting a pothole damage this sensor?

 

Hitting the pothole didn't damage the sensor, it just set it off. If you can't reset it, the sensor might have gone bad (they don't last forever).

 

Before replacing the sensor(s) check to see if the impact just loosened a connection. Or maybe some debris damaged a wire. Idk, just ideas.

 

Before replacing the sensor(s) check to see if the impact just loosened a connection or maybe some debris damaged a wire. Idk, just ideas.

 

Will look up where is is located and see if there is anything obvious.

 

jj
I think the pothole may have damaged the hub itself. Perhaps the bearing or the ABS sensor ring is cracked or warped.
The front hub unit is not desperately expensive.

 

When I did the work to replace the axle (torn boot) I did not notice any obvious issues with the hub bearing. The ABS sensor could be a candidate and that is where I am going to look next Hate to get into the business of replacing sensors until the problem is fixed. I am just not sure that hitting the pot hole would result in damage the steering sensor. I suppose the steering sensor could have just died at or near the same time that I hit the pothole but that would be quite a coincidence.
Take Care all

Ian

 

id be interested to know what the fix ends up being

 

Adding on to this thread, as it is the closest to my situation.

I have an R53 and replaced my steering angle sensor to resolve DSC errors (I do have DSC and the steering angle sensor).

I tried recalibrating / re-registering the new steering angle sensor to the car with both a very early creator scanner, and then with a Foxwell NT510 Elite unit.

The re-registering claimed to work correctly, and I can read and monitor the steering angle sensor with the Foxwell NT510elite scanner. It isn't at 0 post calibration, but it tracks smoothly and correctly the movement of the steering wheel (as far as I can tell). Yet, shortly after going over 20 MPH, the dynamic stability control light will go on with a "Steering Angle Improbable" error.

I also logged and reviewed the speed showing at each of the wheel speed sensors, and they all look reasonable.

How good does the "set wheel to go exactly straight" positioning need to be when recalibrating the sensor? Like "lasers in a shop on a freshly aligned car" perfect? Or "Going straight in the driveway" perfect?

And, if anyone has the foxwell scanner, can you look at the live data for the steering angle sensor and see if it is "something" when going straight, or if it is really close to 0. And if anyone remembers if the calibration process starts it at "whatever", but resets it to zero after you have hit 20 mph and the car is convinced things are working OK and finishes registering it?

Thank you!

 

Tried a better "set straight forward" with some tape and kite string for a pretty good "straight ahead" alignment, and reset everything again.

After about half a mile, the stability control lights came on, and I had an 5E40, ABS-DSC: Steering angle implausible, but no codes for the steering angle sensor. Cleared it (without recalibrating) and drove about another 50 feet and the DSC lights came back on. Half a mile back home, and then when I scanned it, in addition to that 5E40 code, I also now had the LWS: Sensor/Vehicle allocation incorrect or not available.

For what that's worth...

 

Tried all those fixes off the internet and forums (replaced both front hubs OEM, replaced Tpms sensors & Steering angle sensor OEM and reset with Swaben 510 ) nothing worked . Finally went to local Mini shop and the $5000 scan tool reset and turned off all the lights.

 

If the dealer can do it i then I'm pretty sure @adriancl can do it (remotely) too.

 

Well, the TIS isn't much help...

It reads like instructions for the technical challenge in the "Great British Baker" episode.

1) Connect vehicle to BMW diagnosis system
2) Select and carry out steering angle sensor adjustment under service button.

OK, yeah, thanks for that. :/

 

Ok, I made the first real progress in a while this afternoon.

The foxwell 510 elite scanner claims to reset the steering angle sensor, but after doing so, you can look at the live data, and see that whatever the sensor said before it was calibrated is what it still says. So the scanner says it was set to zero on the confirmation screen, but clearly it wasn't. I initially assumed it would read right after hitting 20 mph (or whatever) for a bit after which the dynamic stability control computer accepts it (which is how some other BMW systems work apparently).

So LukasH post was helpful, and made me think that maybe foxwell is just lying, and their calibration doesn't work completely. It behaved this wrong way (calibration did not go to zero) for both the "good used pull" original BMW part, and for the URO part I bought from Rock Auto.

So I took it all apart again, and this time, carefully re-assembled it such that when put back together, the sensor was already at zero, then recalilbrated the sensor with the Foxwell tool (it does something, just not enough I think). You can rotate the position of that inner collar around while the pin is already engaged or nearly engaged, while reading the live position from the scanner, and dial it in to zero. This is fussy, but not actually that difficult.

That kept the lights from coming back on for a good 5 mile trip, which is about 4.8 miles longer than anything else I have attempted. And when I did the "zero the sensor, not the computer" step, I wasn't very fussy about making sure the wheels were actually perfectly at zero, and the net effect was probably that i was off by 7 (whatever units the sensor counts) from true straight. So I am guessing that if I do that again, but a lot more carefully, I can probably get it to stick, and get the DSC to stop throwing "steering angle implausible" errors.

We will see. I will scan it again tomorrow to see if the thrown error state is still "no codes from the steering angle sensor" and "steering angle implausible" from the Dynamic Stability Control system. If so, then I will try a much more diligent zeroing of the sensor physical position to match the wheel position and see if that makes it stick.

If that doesn't work, I will just get it professionally aligned, and then take it to somebody with the BMW scanner and get it reset.

But regardless, I am getting closer.

This was with the URO sensor from Rock Auto, not the BMW sensor, which also may be a mistake (we will see). It's not like the BMW sensors were great either, so I was willing to try aftermarket.

 

I purchased the Standard Ignition Products SAS sensor from O’Reilly Auto parts which was the exact same one used with all the factory BMW markings as OEM . I know these cars are weird about using anything other than factory original parts .

 

+1 for the original sensor.

do you have inpa? Why not use the dealer tool yourself?

 

No, I don't know anything about inpa... I will go research it now, thank you for the suggestion! I suspect it is like Orbit for my Volvo, which was better than I would have dreamed possible.

I did open a ticket with Foxwell for the NT 510 elite, since they are advertising that it can do it, but it clearly doesn't.

 

do yourself a favor good sir. see my post named "inpa"

Edit: thread named "inpa"

 

This one, right?

R50/R53 Inpa - North American Motoring

Thanks again!

 

yes sir. post 16. everything you need

 

Ok, thank you ssoliman, I followed those Z3 forum instructions with the OBD adapter you linked, and I am successfully running INPA and talking to my R53. And I can see the steering angle sensor not coded to car error as well.

What I can't find is where in INPA to go tell the car that it has a new steering angle sensor that needs to be coded to the car. I can see all sorts of "read" options (which are quite nice!), but nothing that lets me "pair new steering angle sensor to car" option.

Anyone have any tips?